Fujiazuma Kazuyoshi

Fujiazuma Kazuyoshi
富士東 和佳
Personal information
Born	Kazuyoshi Shibuya (1987-04-19) April 19, 1987 Tokyo, Japan
Height	1.81 m (5 ft 11 1⁄2 in)
Weight	187 kg (412 lb)
Career
Stable	Tamanoi
Current rank	see below
Debut	November, 2003
Highest rank	Maegashira 4 (July, 2013)
Championships	1 (Jūryō)
* Up to date as of Nov 1, 2016.

Fujiazuma Kazuyoshi (born April 19, 1987 as Kazuyoshi Shibuya) is a professional sumo wrestler from Tokyo, Japan. His highest rank to date has been maegashira 4.

Early life and sumo background

Kazuyoshi Shibuya went to primary school and junior high school in the Adachi, Tokyo. He began practicing sumo in his fifth year of primary school and in his sixth year came in a second in a national primary school sumo tournament. He had been going to Tamanoi stable regularly for practice since primary school as his sumo club had an ongoing relationship with the stable, and this was the stable he ultimately chose to join after junior high school.

Career

He made his debut in November 2003, the same tournament as later jūryō contemporary Sadanoumi. He rose gradually to the ranks of makushita and was working his way up, but would start to suffer from pain due to a neck injury and would eventually drop back down to the fourth tier sandanme division. After two tournaments here he would slowly work his way through makushita again. He reached the elite sekitori ranks in January 2011, a little over seven years after his professional debut.

His rise through jūryō and onto the top-tier makuuchi division was surprisingly smooth compared to his struggles in lower divisions, undoubtedly helped by the forced retiring of several jūryō and lower makuuchi wrestlers due to an unprecedented match-fixing scandal. In these circumstances, a relatively average record of 9-6 at jūryō #8 would allow him promotion to the makuuchi division in July of that year.

A member of Tamanoi stable, he is the first top division wrestler produced by Tamanoi's head coach, the former ozeki Tochiazuma Daisuke. This first makuuchi tournament would be a very successful 10-5 record which would allow him to rise higher through the ranks, but his following four efforts were all losing tournaments which saw him slide back to maegashira 15. A very disappointing 3–12 score in the May 2012 tournament saw him demoted back to the jūryō division, but upon his return to the top division he put together a string of five consecutive 8–7 records which eventually saw him promoted to his highest rank to date of maegashira 4.

He sat out the March 2014 tournament, recuperating after a detached retina operation. This led to his demotion back to jūryō for the following May 2014 tournament where he only managed a 7-8 record. He won the jūryō division championship in March 2015 and was promoted back to makuuchi, but his return to the top division lasted only one tournament as he could only score 3-12. This has been his last makuuchi appearance to date.

Fighting style

Fujiazuma weighs 183 kg, making him one of the heaviest wrestlers in makuuchi. He wins most of his bouts by pushing and thrusting; his most common winning kimarite or technique is oshi dashi (push out).

Career record

See also

• List of sumo tournament second division champions
• Glossary of sumo terms
• List of active sumo wrestlers

References

External links

• Fujiazuma Kazuyoshi's official biography (English) at the Grand Sumo Homepage